Gods and Beasts by Denise Mina A Novel (Alex Morrow)

It's the week before Christmas when a lone robber bursts into a busy Glasgow post office carrying an AK-47. An elderly man suddenly hands his young grandson to a stranger and wordlessly helps the gunman fill bags with cash, then carries them to the door. He opens the door and bows his head; the robber fires off the AK-47, tearing the grandfather in two.

DS Alex Morrow arrives on the scene and finds that the alarm system had been disabled before the robbery. Yet upon investigation, none of the employees can be linked to the gunman. And the grandfather-a life-long campaigner for social justice-is above reproach. As Morrow searches for the killer, she discovers a hidden, sinister political network. Soon it is chillingly clear: no corner of the city is safe, and her involvement will go deeper than she could ever have imagined.

Denise Mina is the author of The End of the Wasp Season, Still Midnight, Slip of the Knife, The Dead Hour, Field of Blood, Deception, and the Garnethill trilogy, the first installment of which won her the John Creasey Memorial Prize for best first crime novel. She lives in Glasgow.

Publishers Weekly

At the start of Scottish author Minaâs excellent third crime novel featuring Det. Sgt. Alex Morrow (after 2011âs The End of the Wasp Season), a lone gunman enters a Glasgow post office, where he order

Publishers Weekly

While Mina keeps Alexâs life outside of work mostly on the back burner, she ups the stakes by taking us into the dark, beating heart of modern Glasgow, where the real deals are struck and the spoils divided.

Examiner

Book Reporter

GODS AND BEASTS exemplifies this as the title itself is straight from the mouth of Aristotle: “Those who live outside the city walls, and are self-sufficient, are either Gods or Beasts.” Morrow is clearly on the outside looking in with this case.